Do you think the dominant of English will threaten the existence of other languages?

Answer 1

Like it or not, English has become the "global language." This gets blamed on American culture/globalization, but you can just as easily find examples of this with the British or Australians in their respective areas of the world and/or failure to learn/teach second languages.

English is by far the most common lingua-franca (language used for communication between people from different countries) in the world. Almost any educated person in the world has at least working proficiency in English because of this; also, many university textbooks are available only in English (whether the class itself is taught in English or not), so students have no choice.

To a much smaller extent, Spanish and Mandarin may be threating other languages in certain areas of the world (non-Spanish speaking Latin America and Southeast Asia, respectively). However, neither pose any legitimate threat to English in the US.

As a college-educated professional who is fluent in Spanish, I can honestly tell you that there is very little (if any) value for this on the job market. These so-called "jobs that require spanish" are usually telemarketing or other blue-collar jobs.

Lastly, Francophiles (including myself) hate to admit it, but French is really dying as the "other global language" (2nd to English).

Answer 2

In some cases like in Ireland and Wales it seems like this is the case. The majority of the populations for both countries now speak English while only a small percentage still speak Irish Gaelic and Welsh. If societies and countries don't make an effort to hold on to their native languages then yes, I'd say that English is an enormous threat. However, if different countries make an effort to support their langauge(s) and teach it properly in their schools they will continue to thrive.

Answer 3

More people around the world speak Arabic than English. And I think China's got a couple of people not speaking English...
We English speakers (esp. Americans) just like to think our language is dominant, but perhaps that's just our ethnocentrism showing???

Answer 4

English and Spanish are battling it out. Everybody else is losing. I think if the world lasts that long, we'll have one primary language within 500 years. No sooner than that, though. People like their languages. Even the "dead" languages will be remembered for a long time.

Answer 5

No, as globalization increases, Chinese, Spanish, French, etc. are more and more commonly used. Also, people will always be curious about ancient times and history. The only way that they can study this precisely would to study certain languages. Lastly, English isn't everywhere.

Answer 6

i dont think it will because americans dont really take care of the language like the french they are paranoid about someone messing up their language or that it is lost so i dont think it will happen maybe in small places it can but for the most part i dont believ it will
i actually think that if young people dont start talking proper english that we will actually loose a huge part of our language we need to improve it not make it worse so yeah thats what i think
im not saying i talk proper english because i dont i kinda suck at it since my first language is spanish and then i started to learn english in the first grade so yeah but dont think im stupid becuase i got AP classes and stuff like that so yeah well thats my opinion

MEXICANS rock


White people suck


jajajaja jk

peoples im american toooooooo
just because i was born here but the rest of me is MEXICAnN not that im racist or anything i dont have anything against americans
except blonde ugly B I T C H E S who think they're the best and yeah so not cool
not that i hate them i just dislke them very much so yeah

Answer 7

Generally speaking no. Maybe in the post colonial regions, but other than that English is a passing fancy, just like French was 200 years ago. So, don't worry!

Answer 8

Hate to say it...but from what I've seen in my small piece of Hell...it seems like SPANISH is threatening the existence of other languages, at least around my place...if you say I'm racist, then you people are idiots....